Thursday, February 19, 2009

Preliminary Notes

At present, the list of possible players includes:

KenHR, who has a blog but has not updated it since Jan 29, 2007.Chgowiz, who updates very regularly on his Old Guy RPG Blog.Ryan, who recently started a blog, Save vs. Poison.Ragnorakk, who has no blog and whose profile is unavailable.Joseph, who also has no blog and whose profile is also unavailable.

That is, conveniently, five people. I only mention blogs and profiles because this sums up pretty much everything I know about you. That’s fine, for the record, but it does help me to have a first impression.

I’m not closing the field yet, but I think if I got just one or two more people I’d try running with six or maybe seven. I think eight would be too many. If I do have to pick, however, its not going to be on how much I know about anyone, but about what sort of interest players show for the campaign setting and for writing in general. There are going to be descriptions from me, and I’m going to need information back, which will necessarily mean more than grunting a few words.

But I have no interest in making anyone jump through hoops. If you five and anyone else who wants (besides Chgowiz, who asked for Bavaria) wants to speak out on where you’d like to start, and perhaps some reasons why, that would help me design the beginning of the campaign and pick the specific town/location. Chgowiz, feel free to further elaborate. I hope you can all find wikipedia and you don’t mind looking up a few of the regions I mentioned, those being Mecklenburg, Saxony, Sudetenland, Vogtland (west Czech), Erzgebirge, Bohemia, Moravia, Upper Austria or Bavaria. For good measure, I’ll throw in Holstein (including Hamburg) and Lower Saxony as well.

I’ve been thinking that I won’t start another blog, but simply run the game on this blog, if that’s fine with everyone. I might lose a few readers, but I might gain a few also. I’ll title any post relevant to the campaign with the word “Campaign:” at the front. And at the end, I’ll add the post script that comments are welcome for that post but that suggestions for the players are not; and further that I’ll delete any comment that interrupts the flow of the game.

To play, the players will add comments to the post describing what their characters do or ask questions, to which I’ll answer and elaborate, adding detail and description as necessary. Players will roll dice (in combat describing who they are attacking/what they are doing and with what weapon/spell/method) and give the number as a comment. I will do the same, though I will probably only list hits and misses and damage. To save time, I’ll probably give the enemy’s AC so that damage can be rolled at once if players hit—its not strictly D&D as I would play it, but it will save comments…particularly if you have to roll and then wait and wait before I check my email to tell you that yes, you hit, or no, you didn’t. That could get frustrating. Bad enough you having to wait to see if the damage you did killed or not.

When the circumstance changes enough, I will start a new post.

I’ve been thinking that the best way perhaps to keep track of characters would be if the players created a profile on blogger, including an image of your character, which would then appear, with your character’s name, next to your comments. That would certainly make it easier for me. As well, some of the base information could be kept on your player’s blogger profile page. I’m not sure if this would mean some of you having to create a new email or not; I’ve not tried to create an alternative profile…but I have to keep this one in order to access this blog.

As far as a character picture, something with a recognizable face or the upper torso and head. That helps create an emotional relationship for me and for other players. I’m pretty open about what the image actually is; and I don’t care too much if it perfectly reflects the charisma/hair color of your character. But I asked for nerds, you all heard me do that, so chances are you’ll do your best to reflect your image of your character. That’s fine for me, as long as the first one you pick remains the image for at least a couple of months (frustrating to have people changing images all the time).

Well, that’s just a few thoughts for now. Things will occur to me throughout the day, and when I have enough of them I’ll post again.

I wanted Bavaria to be the starting point because of where Berchtesgaden is located. The Alps and the history of Salzburg (ancient Roman city, then center of power for bishops and merchants in the Middle Ages), plus my own interests in WW2. So from purely a "wee" standpoint, that was my pick. From a game standpoint, with mountains, possibly older/ancient links and being in a gorgeous locale, I thought it a good choice.

For PbP, I usually roll to-hit and damage at the same time as well. It makes things faster.

Blogger does require a unique email for a Blogger profile. If you want me to create a new email, it's no big thing, especially with gmail allowing multiple email account access.

I do have a blog (www.quietdayinheimdall.blogspot.com)and have made my profile available on it now.As far as starting points go, I'm willing to defer to the other players if they have specific ideas, but I would like to play a Silesian.I'm thinking about playing a cleric. I remember reading in an earlier post that there are religions present other than historical Christian/Islam/etc, and that the devotees of such have to keep their beliefs 'close to the vest'.Could I get more information on this? If this is non-public information, my email is spaceagecouple gmail com.

If either of you wants to bow out in favor of the other, I’m good with either of those starting locations. Ken and Ryan have yet to be heard from. I might suggest either Vysochina, a mountainous region southeast of Prague and northeast of Salzburg, or (if closer to Salzburg would be preferable) the southern edge of Bohemia, in the vicinity of Budweis (Ceske Budojovice) or Winterberg (Vimperk).

Keep in mind that the year will be 1650, which is two years after the devastating Catholic-Protestant struggle of the 30 years war, and that many parts of Bavaria and Bohemia, the latter in particular, were devastated by the petty infighting between both local and national armies alike.

Ragnorakk,

All the various mythos from the Deities and Demigods are included in my world, as well any other religion that actually existed on earth and for which we have at least some concept of how it might have been practiced: Zoroastrians, Cathars, Zionists, parsees, shintos, devil-worshippers, anabaptists, buddhists, animists and so on. All mythos are followed by clerics in their entirety…clerics do not worship a single god in polytheistic religions, but worship all the gods in the mythos, calling on the one that most defines the need the cleric has at that particular time.

Most of the polytheistic religions exist “on the run,” as it were, as monotheistic religions tend to be have less than tolerant policies towards them. The compensating factor is that, being generally smaller in number, members of a polytheistic religion have a more intimate potential for contact with their deities.

It helps to remember that there are more than 240 million people in my world, which makes for about 350,000 clerics…so as a first-level cleric you’re pretty insignificant in the scheme of things as far as the gods are concerned. You’ve learned to be properly contrite in asking for your spells, and that’s about as much as is expected of you. Later on, when you are higher level, your pantheon might become interested in you and knock you down a peg or two if you don’t show yourself to be all too interested in religion (as many player-clerics don’t seem to be). But that is for later on. At the beginning, you’re fairly free to be almost heretical in your behavior.

Then it's settled. Bavaria, near Berchtesgaden. The little town itself is controlled by a Priory of Catholic monks, subject to Augsburg...so there's some question as to begin within the actual tiny territory of Berchtesgaden or in the Palatinate of Upper Bavaria.

Where you put your character sheet is pretty open, as long as I can get a look when necessary. Remember that there are lots of features on a standardized sheet I don't use and lots of features I've added.

Additional Content

Began playing Dungeons and Dragons at the age of 15, thirty-eight years ago. I am a steadfast AD&D gamer, but I have made so many changes to the original system that my present model is something of a Frankenstein's monster of role-playing design. I continue to make new changes every day to my game's structure and function.

The Net has described me as a 'mad scientist of RPG blogging,' and a 'Quixotic bastard' ... and also 'the most gonzo - and the grouchiest - old school DM.'

Progress on The Fifth Man

For a period going forward, I will be rewriting the last third of the book as a second draft. I will begin recording that progress also as soon as I pick up the task again. It has been more than two weeks now and I apologize to my backers; but rest assured, I'm sorting myself out and I'll get started again soon.

Progress on the third draft, finalized (will likely be some continuity fixes) stand as follows:

June 29, 2017

Distance yesterday: 0 words

Total distance: 75,490

Chapter in progress: 17

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